You know how good the Cavaliers are at tanking? They are setting records. A record. A record record record. According to Elias, the Cavs became the first team in the HISTORY OF THE NBA to lose back-to-back home games by 35 points or more. I'm not even mad; that's impressive.
Cavaliers lose 125-90 and fall to 17-34 on the season. 15 games left!
Cavs "Leaders": Points: Jamison, 15; Rebounds: Gee, 5; Assists: Irving, Walton, 5
Quick thoughts:
Eight losses in a row. 11 of their last 12. 17 of their last 21. That, my friends, is impressive. All these other teams are out here tanking by losing a couple games in a row here and there. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, are in full-blown "we don't give a shit" mode. It feels like they are down 20 before the game even starts. The Spurs did whatever they wanted against the Cavaliers and dropped a whopping 125 points with the likes of Patty Mills and Boris Diaw getting some serious playing time.
The current state of the Cavaliers:
BOOM.
With yet another Cavs loss and the Raptors' victory over the Bobcats, Cleveland now has sole possession of the fourth worst record in the NBA. Being slotted fourth in the lottery is really nice and would get the Cavs a heck of a player in the draft.
There are people who wanted the Cavs to lose a lot in order to get a better pick, yet are getting worried about fostering a "losing culture" in the organization while doing it. I've seen people getting cold feet about these whole tanking thing, thinking it has gone too far. Here's what I say to that: Psssshhhhhhhh.
The Cavaliers don't need to worry about a losing culture right now. They need to worry about getting talented players on the roster. You know what creates a winning culture? Winning games. You know what wins games? Talented players. You know where you get talented players? The top of the NBA draft. We'll worry about a "winning culture" when we get to that point.
For some reason, Daniel Green (former Cavalier) decided to torch his old team last night. Green scored 19 points and shot 7-11 from the field including 4 three pointers. He was never really that good with the Cavaliers, but seems to be doing well on the Spurs. I'm happy for him. The Spurs are a great organization and I hope that Chris Grant can build our franchise like the one in San Antonio.
The Cavaliers ran out a bunch of their D-League pickups once this game was out of hand (also known as the end of the first quarter). Lester Hudson, Donald Sloan, etc played some decent minutes, but nobody stood out to me. Hudson scored 12 points in 22 minutes, but did nothing that made me go "wow, this guy should be on the roster next year". Expect a complete overhaul of this roster sans a few guys (Varejao, Gee, Kyrie, Tristan).
Fear The Sword's Player of the Game:
This section feels like it has become meaningless as we come down the home stretch. I'll give this one to Semih Erden because he played relatively decently (albeit in garbage time). He even had a dunk! Yay, Semih!